NOAA Regional Climate Centers

Regional enterprises for user-centric climate services, interdisciplinary climate research,

applications, and education that provide a regional focus to addressing societal needs.

RCC Overview December, 2008 Marjorie McGuirk

Illinois State Water Survey

Louisiana State University

WWA

Desert Research Institute

NOAA Climate Diagnostic Center

CIG

University of Nebraska

CAP

IDEA

CLIMAS

SECC

NOAA National Climatic Data Center

NOAA Climate Prediction Center,*

Cornell University

International Research Institute

UNC-Chapel Hill

CISA

Also:

122 WFOs

15 WSOs

13 RFCs

~50 State

Climatologists

* Climate Services Division, * Climate Program Office, and* NOAA HQ

OAR RISA

NWS Regional HQ

Regional Climate Centers

ACCAP

Climate Services PartnershipsThe Broad Community

2

SCIPP

RCCs support the Climate activities in the States as identified by color

Regional Centers of Dataand Products

NOAA RCCs

NCDCAncillary Variables

Federal Networks

State Networks

NWS• USDA• NPS• USGS

• Economic• Agronomic• Societal

• Mesonets • “Specialty” Variables

• Real Time• Products vs. Data• Monitoring• Data Synchrony• Paperless Coop

• Customer Service• Data Stewardship• HCN-M

Model DataRemotely Sensed

GeospatialLand Use

Location of Regional Climate Centers

MRCC University of Illinois – Urbana, ILSERCC University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NCSRCC Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LAWRCC Desert Research Institute,

University of Nevada, Reno, NVNRCC Cornell University, Ithaca, NYHPRCC University of Nebraska –Lincoln, NE

NOAA/NESDIS Regional Climate Centers and NOAA/OAR Research

NOAA OAR RISA supports university-based teams on research grants to analyze how climate impacts key sectors in resource management and planning.

NOAA Regional Climate CentersRCC Functions – Climate Services

• Provide general and user-defined regional and local climate products and services to external users and partners including: – near-real time relational database system,– web-based information resources.

• Provide regional and local expertise and assistance to a wide range of customers.

• Climate services tasks are iterative and evolutionary– Specific on-line climate information and data archival and access

capabilities grow from user and partner interests and needs.

• Infrastructure strengthening– Specialized climate service personnel recruitment and training

NOAA/NESDIS/NCDC/RCC Climate Assessment

Research

NOAA Regional Climate CentersRCC Functions – Education and Outreach

• Conduct outreach to regional and local decision makers on the use of climate products.– Building design (snow loads, soil freezing), – Flood management, – Irrigation, – Pest management– Coastal erosion– Water management– Agriculture– Climate change– Energy– Environment– Risk management– Transportation– Natural hazards

Operational Delivery of RCC Climate Products

• millions NowData products per month

• 30+ State Climatologists with ACIS access

• AgACIS access in 3141 US counties

• 1000s of regional climate maps generated per day

• Nearly 5,000,000 online climate services monthly

• Decision tools for Cooperative Extension, private industry, government

» Irrigation

» Flood management

» Public health

• xmACIS (NWS Field Office Use)• Applied Climate Information System• Data query tool for NWS local climate research/local product

development, and to answer customer climate record inquiries• Complete historical climate database with near real-time

update

• agACIS (Custom data and products for the NCRS)• NOWData (Customer Use)

• Self-service tool• Subset of xmACIS• Free, limited access• For current year and Normals• Portal for ACIS and NCDC information

• ThreadEx (Open Use)• Consistent daily temperature and

precipitation extremes• Datzilla (Partner Use)

• Data discrepancy reporting• 400 registered NOAA users

• WxCoder III (COOP Use) • Internet observation entry system

NCDC-RCC-NWS CollaborationNational Climate Services Data Tools

Objective: Develop a series of coastal climatologies that build on traditional air climatology, add marine parameters, and lead to products used by state and local managers faced with decisions that have climate-related components.

Goal: Conduct a pilot study focusing on the southeastern U.S., from Virginia to the Atlantic coast of Florida. Parameters of coastal climatology, and geographic and temporal scale that parameters will be reported and examined, will depend upon “core” uses of this information by managers.

Actions:• Conduct stakeholders workshop (Q3)• Produce report describing core uses to guide development of

data, tools, and applications of coastal climatology in southeast U.S. (Q4)

Core uses will include: mock-ups of applications from fishery management, mitigation of hazards, agriculture, energy conservation, water consumption, storm water management, and coastal inter-modal transportation

Climate Services & Supporting ResearchClimate Services & Supporting Research NESDIS & NOS ClimatologiesNESDIS & NOS Climatologies

Objective: Conduct research to better assess the impacts of climate variability and weather events on natural systems and society.

Goal: Provide information, services and products to mitigate against environmental, economic, ecosystem health and human health impacts related to extreme climate conditions and atmospheric storms.

Actions:• Host user workshop

• Begin development of coastal climatology

• Initial focus on North and South Carolina

• Award NOAA cooperative agreement

• Establish partnerships and begin to engage potential users

Climate Services & Supporting ResearchClimate Services & Supporting Research Climate and Weather Impacts on Society and the Climate and Weather Impacts on Society and the

Environment (CWISE)Environment (CWISE)

Established Links to State and Regional Stakeholders

• 3 tiers of climate services: NCDC, AASC & RCCs

• RCCs provide consistency in data and products

• Established ties to all 50 states & inter-state agencies

• Closely Integrated with Cooperative Extension• Agriculture Sea Grant Water Resources Environment

• Urban Issues K-12 Education Climate Change

• Growing ties to the NOAA RISAs

Optimizing Climate Services PartnershipsOptimizing Climate Services Partnerships

Partnering with Regional Climate Centers Partnering with Regional Climate Centers

Examples: DATA

Regional Data Network from the High Plains RCC

Fire Season Stations in AZ from the Western RCC

Optimizing Climate Services PartnershipsOptimizing Climate Services Partnerships

Partnering with Regional Climate Centers Partnering with Regional Climate Centers

Examples: SERVICE

Real-Time Regional Mapping from the Midwestern RCC

Optimizing Climate Services PartnershipsOptimizing Climate Services Partnerships

Partnering with Regional Climate Centers Partnering with Regional Climate Centers

Partnership Examples: RESEARCH

West Nile Virus Research Midwestern RCCNortheast RCCSoutheastern RCC

Nimble and Responsive• HCN-M Surveys

• Desktop and in the field

• Northrup Grumman GEOS Decision Tools

• Extremes Database for The WeatherChannel

• Able to transition applied research• Current discussions with RMA

• Consistent and authoritative information in

response to extremes

U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA): Agricultural Research Service, Cooperative State Research, Education, Farm Service Agency, Forest Service, National Agricultural Statistics Service, Natural Resources Conservation Service, Risk Management Agency

U.S. Department of Commerce (DoC): International Trade Administration, National Oceanic & Atmospheric AdministrationU.S. Department of Energy (DoE): Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability, Office of Energy Efficiency &

Renewable Energy, Office of ScienceU.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS): Federal Emergency Management (FEMA) DirectorateU.S. Department of the Interior (DoI): Bureau of Indian Affairs, Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Reclamation,

National Park Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Geological Survey, U.S. Department of Transportation (DoT): Federal Aviation Administration, Federal Highway Administration, Surface

Transportation BoardEnvironmental Protection Agency (EPA), Farm Credit Administration (FCA), Federal Energy Regulatory

Commission (FERC), Internal Revenue Services, International Trade Commission (USITC), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), National Science Foundation (NSF) , Small Business Administration (SBA)

Western Governors’ Association – a key sponsor of early NIDIS development efforts and ongoing concerns Western States Water Council – represents water managers in the Western United StatesRegional Climate Centers – collection, quality control, and analysis of data, weekly input to the Drought Monitor and

Drought impact ReporterNational Conference of State Legislatures – drought monitoring and mitigation activities will require state support,

of which much requires state legislative involvementNational League of Cities – water availability and quality issuesAmerican Association of State Climatologists – many of whom are active participants in the Drought Monitor National Drought Mitigation Center – A national clearinghouse for Redrought-related information, research, mitigation

measures, and operational home of the Drought Monitor and Drought Impact Reporter;Native American tribal governments – mostly located in arid regions in which water is a vital concern

NIDIS Interagency PartnersFederal, State, Tribal, Local Levels

NOAA Regional Climate CentersRCC History and Program Management

• Response to National Climate Program Act of 1978 • Three demonstration projects 1981-1986• Congressionally directed funds 1986

– Western RCC Desert Research Institute – 1987– Midwestern RCC Illinois State Water Survey – 1988– High Plains RCC University of Nebraska – 1988– Northeast RCC Cornell University – 1989– Southeast RCC South Carolina Dept. Natural Resources – 1990– (Now University of North Carolina Chapel Hill)– Southern RCC Louisiana State University – 1990

• National Climate Program Office 1988-1991• National Weather Service 1991-1997• National Climatic Data Center 1997-present

Toward the future

Establish a niche as Regional Centers of Climate Data Products and Infrastructure

•Consistency in products, data and information•Efficiency in managing databases•Expansion beyond NOAA data sets•Ancillary variables as well as unique gridded data sets

Become Leaders in environmental data management•Transition climate data to decision tools•Rapid response to state and regional climate anomalies•Real time linking of climate data to environmental models

Serve as Active Bridge for state, local and regional stakeholders to NOAA

•Fill a Climate Extension role by expanding existing strong ties to Cooperative Extension•Facilitate serving the needs of local stake holders